A GROWING PROBLEM: POT CROPS VIOLATE CITY ORDINANCES

James Benno has a healthy crop of marijuana plants growing in his
south Redding backyard.

He has 36 plants, ranging from 9 to 14 feet tall and covering 960
square feet of his yard. They are enclosed within a 6-foot-tall
chain-link fence that is topped with three strands of barbed wire.

Benno said he plans to begin harvesting the plants sometime next
month. But the city of Redding has given him until next Friday to
reduce the size of the plants and his garden.

City of Redding officials say that Benno is violating three city
ordinances: The area he is cultivating is too large, his plants are
too tall and can be seen from the street, and his plants are too close
to his neighbor's property.

Benno said he is being targeted because he has been an outspoken
critic of the city's marijuana cultivation ordinance.

"They're trying to exterminate people like me," he said. "That's them
trying to threaten my landlord to evict me because I'm a (Prop.) 215
patient."

But Bill Nagel, Redding's interim development services director, said
the order has nothing to do with Benno personally. He said the city
only wants Benno -- who rents the house -- and the property owner to
comply with city laws.

"He's making this something that it's not," Nagel said of
Benno.

Complaints against marijuana growers are common at this time of year
as plants grow tall and neighbors see and smell them, Nagel said.

The city has about six outstanding administrative compliance orders
related to marijuana cultivation, he said.

"They get tall, they get smelly. Sometimes it's a sight issue,
sometimes its smell," he said.

A city code enforcement officer was sent to Benno's home on Sept. 1
following a complaint, Nagel said. He declined to say who made the
complaint, saying the information is confidential to protect the
person from retaliation.

Benno faces no fines if he complies with the order, Nagel
said.

The order says Benno needs to reduce the square footage of his
cultivation plot to 300 square feet. He also must move the plot so the
plants are at least 10 feet from the backyard property lines and 30
feet from the nearest neighbor. He also needs to reduce the height of
his plants so they are no taller than 8 feet high or not visible from
the street.

Nagel said the property owner, Robert Ballard, of Redding, also
received a compliance order. Ballard said Thursday he didn't want to
comment except to say that he is trying to stay out of the dispute and
let Benno handle it.

If Ballard or Benno does not comply with the order by next Friday,
they have the opportunity to take their dispute to a three-member
administrative appeals board made up of City Council appointees, Nagel
said.

Ballard is subject to fines up to $330, or $110 per violation, Nagel
said.

Benno said he is complying with state law by providing medical
marijuana for six people who have doctors' recommendations for
medicinal cannabis. He has no plans to trim his plants or move them.

Benno said he is complying with state law but the city's ordinance
violates the law.

"I told them I would never comply," Benno said.

Nagel disagrees.

"We have a right to regulate this in our city."